Protecting The Rhinos
Rhinos being relocated due to drought
The Kenya Wildlife Service has recently begun to relocate initially 10 southern white rhinos from the Lake Nakuru National Park to the Nairobi National Park, after drought conditions in Nakuru worsened. KWS also intimated that further relocations may have to take place to protect the rhinos in Lake Nakuru National Park from drought effects.
In the early 1980s, Lake Nakuru National Park was turned into the country’s first park come rhino sanctuary to protect the then highly-endangered species and the fencing of the entire park was completed with a specially-designed electric fence, which helped to make the rhino breeding program an overwhelming success. In fact, several of the rhinos have over the years already been relocated to other parks to restock the rhino population and allow reproduction in the wild.
The carrying capacity of Lake Nakuru National Park has reached its limits, however, as a result of the drought, and the success of the breeding program over the past twenty-plus years has added to the pressure on the park’s ecosystem, which now is no longer able to sustain the large numbers of rhino found in the park. Visitors to the Nairobi National Park, only 10 miles from the city, will be the beneficiaries of the relocation, as they will be able to see quite a few more rhinos when doing a little “safari to the suburbs.”
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